Eubank, Science Hill and Somerset are now only a shift of the gears apart. Completion of four-lane U.S. 27 has clustered the three communities with connecting ribbons of blacktop.

Allowing four-lane traffic flow last week on the final section of U.S. 27 from Ky. 452 (Bull Road) to just north of the caution lights at the intersection with Ky. 70 at Eubank gives a “freeway” feeling to the northern entrance to Pulaski County. It takes less than 15 minutes to drive from Eubank to Somerset, or Somerset to Eubank. To or from Science Hill, about four miles, is around 5 minutes travel time.

The Kentucky Department of Highways, without fanfare and without public announcement, last Thursday allowed traffic on all four lanes between Ky. 452 (Bull Road) to just north of Ky. 70 at Eubank, the final contract section of the 13.5-mile highway project. Bill Chaney, branch manager for project delivery and preservation for the Highway Department's District 8, said construction of four-lane U.S. 27 north of Somerset is basically complete except for adding some safety features such as rumble strips.

Despite four 12-foot driving lanes, two south and two north, separated by a 40-foot depressed median, new U.S. 27 was not built to interstate specifications. Side roads exit and enter and there are traffic-control lights at intersections with Cumberland Parkway-Ky. 80 bypass, Ky. 2227 (old U.S. 27), Ky. 1247, Ky. 635 at Science Hill, and flashing caution lights at the intersection with Ky. 70 at Eubank. Left turn (storage) lanes are at side roads and right (storage) lanes exist at busy exits such as Valley View shopping center in Science Hill and Science Hill Elementary School.

Total cost of four-laning U.S. 27 is $73,038,792.33. Compare this with the slightly more than $3 million it cost during the late 1950s to build the U.S. 27 “Truck Route” all the way from Burnside to Eubank. For those old enough to remember, meandering Ky. 1247, before the 1950s, was the original U.S. 27. Through Somerset, it followed what is now Monticello Street, ducked beneath the railroad tracks at the infamous underpass and climbed Wait’s Hill to Main Street and then up Harvey’s Hill.

U.S. 27, then and now, is a federal highway and a scenic route from Michigan to Florida. Its importance was diminished at some locations when I-75 collected most north-south traffic.

Hinkle Contracting Corporation, Somerset and Paris, built all of new U.S. 27 except the initial contract section between Somerset and Science Hill. Bizzack Inc., Lexington, began work on the first section in March 2005 and it opened in August 2007. An I-66 interchange, located two miles north of Somerset, was built by Bizzack, and awaits completion of the northern bypass of Somerset.

Chaney said Hinkle’s blacktopping crews are currently working on some other roads, but the contractor’s next big project is surfacing new four-lane Ky. 1247 from the southeastern bypass through Elihu to the new partial cloverleaf interchange in northern Burnside. Both these projects are scheduled to be completed late this fall.

Hinkle and its subcontractors also are in grade and drain stages of realigning Cumberland Parkway. The parkway, designated route of Interstate 66 and northern bypass of Somerset, is being reconstructed to veer slightly northward at the Somerset side of Fishing Creek hill and join U.S. 27 about two miles north of Somerset at the already-constructed interchange.

The realigned section of Cumberland Parkway won’t be complete until late next summer. About a half-mile section of the parkway will be abandoned when the route change is made and access to Somerset from the interstate (northern bypass) will be created at an intersection with the southwestern bypass, now under construction at its northern end.

Most right-of-way has been acquired for I-66 (northern bypass) between U.S. 27 and Ky. 39, Chaney said. Utilities currently are been relocated along this corridor and this section of the bypass is about ready for construction as soon as money is available.

The I-66 corridor from Ky. 39 to Ky. 80 about a mile and a quarter east of the Ky. 461 intersection at Barnesburg is still in the right-of-way stage , Chaney noted. An I-66 corridor from Ky. 80 through Shopville to I-75 at London has been selected.